SEEN AND HEARD (PART 1): STRIGOI, THE LOVECRAFT SEXTET, KRISIUN, UZUMAKI

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  1 Response »
Jul 222022
 

 

This was a humongous week for new music, and my head is overflowing with round-up selections, so many that I decided to present them in two Parts today. Beyond those, I also have aspirations to compile another collection for publication on Saturday. Without further ado, here are the first four choices.

STRIGOI (UK)

In case you might have forgotten, Strigoi is the band formed by Greg Mackintosh (Paradise Lost) after he interred his previous project Vallenfyre. Joined by Vallenfyre bassist Chris Casket, he released a debut Strigoi album named Abandon All Faith in 2019, and we devoted significant attention to it, including a lavish review here by DGR.

It was thus exciting to learn that Strigoi are returning with a follow-up full-length named Viscera, which is set for release by Season of Mist on September 30th. The first advance track from it — “Hollow” — is how we begin today’s round-up. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: KRISIUN, DOEDSVANGR, SERPENT COLUMN, NERVOCHAOS

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Aug 272021
 

 

This round-up is a Brazilian death metal sandwich with some poisonous charred goods inside. I’m anticipating I’ll have time for a second round-up later today, which will be some other kind of tasty but toxic meal.

KRISIUN (Brazil)

Yesterday Century Media released a video for the title track from Krisiun‘s latest album, Scourge Of The Enthroned, which is has been out since September 2018.

This is such a good song — jagged and jolting, weird and wailing, menacing and mad. Moving mainly at turbocharged speed, it gives your skull a hard slugging and your guts a good gouging, blaring and boiling with maniacal ferocity but also packing a pulse-pounding punch and infiltrating bits of eerie melody. The soloing screams, the vocals are savage, and the drumming is lights-out. And it’s a blast to watch these veteran barbarians perform the song. Continue reading »

KRISIUN: “SCOURGE OF THE ENTHRONED”

 Album Reviews  3 Responses »
Aug 272018
 

 

(Here’s Vonlughlio‘s write-up on the new Krisiun album, Scourge of the Enthroned, which will be released on September 7th by Century Media.)

As I started to write this small review for Krisiun‘s new album Scourge of the Enthroned, I found myself thinking that this band needs no introduction. They have been active since 1990, releasing crushing Death Metal from their homeland of Brazil.  After this many years of activity, some bands tend to reduce the intensity and fury of their music, evolving into something more, or something less. Sometimes change is good, at other times not so much.

In the case of this band, they seem not to have aged one bit, still combining that fury and precise execution that I discovered back in my country. The year was 1996, and in the Dominican Republic this type of music was hard to get. But fortunately, there was a guy there who somehow got all the music (or knowledge) and would burn tapes, and one of those was Krisiun’s debut album. Continue reading »

DEATH RITUALS (PART 1): KRISIUN, ABYSMAL TORMENT, BLOODPHEMY, BURIAL SHRINE

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Jul 242018
 

 

This is basically a SEEN AND HEARD round-up of new music, but it dawned on me that a big portion of what I’d chosen either fits under the big umbrella of death metal or draws strength from the worship of death, so I’ve gone with a post title I’ve occasionally used before. And I picked so many new songs of this nature that I had to break it up into two parts. The second one will be up tomorrow, because we’ve cut a pretty wide swath through your head with new music today already.

KRISIUN

The cover art painted by Eliran Kantor for Krisiun’s new album, Scourge of the Enthroned, is so damned cool, and therefore it’s no surprise that Krisiun and Century Media chose a lyric video featuring the album art as a method for premiering the album’s first advance track, “Demonic III“. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: KRISIUN, KHONSU, MIRE, BIRTH THE WRETCHED, ENDOLITH, KIELKROPF

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  4 Responses »
Jul 032018
 

 

As you may have noticed, I compiled another round-up earlier today, though I was just following instructions with that one, all the choices having been urged upon me by my comrade DGR (and Andy Synn, in part) to suit a What Year Is It?!? theme. I haven’t completely escaped the urgings of my comrades in this collection either, since three of the songs and videos were pressed upon me by Mr. Synn.

However, although I’m less the curator of this particular gallery and more like the slovenly dude who frames the stuff and hangs it on the wall, I did include music of my own choosing at the end (and for better or worse, I’ll be picking everything for our Independence Day round-up tomorrow).

But before we get to all the music, I have a couple of news items (and even the second of those was brought to my attention by my colleagues).

KRISIUN

How could I resist the opportunity to brandish (extra-large) the painted artwork of Eliran Kantor at the top of our page again? Obviously, I couldn’t. It will appear on Krisiun’s new album, Scourge of the Enthroned, marred by text, as follows: Continue reading »

COVERING MOTÖRHEAD

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  19 Responses »
Dec 302015
 

Integrity-Orgasmatron cover

 

Like a lot of people, I spent most of my music-listening time yesterday with Motörhead. For the hell of it, I also spent time listening to metal bands covering Motörhead songs. A lot of bands have done that. Out of the many covers I listened to,  damned few of them are quite as good as the originals, and at least to my ears, none of them is better.

However, having invested the time hunting for covers that breathed some kind of different life into the classic originals, I decided to put them all here — the good ones and the so-so ones — by these bands: Satyricon, Sepultura, Ringworm (with guest vocals by Barney Greenway), Korpiklaani, Sodom, Machetazo, Avulsed, Overkill, Metallica, Horna, Kvelertak, Warbringer, and Krisiun.

But before I get to those, I’m starting with one that’s definitely a success. It’s a cover  of “Orgasmatron” that Integrity released just yesterday on Bandcamp (here). Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: WOLFHEART, KRISIUN, WINDHAND, ENABLER, INFRA

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  6 Responses »
Jul 112015
 

Wolfheart 2015

 

Happy Saturday. A whole bunch of metal bands I like released new songs this past week. I didn’t jump on all of them with my usual alacrity because I was burning the candle at both ends with a combination of day-job crap, personal crap, and late-night drinking with good friends (not crap), followed by hangover crap. I will make it up to you: Our other writers stand ready to mow your loans or hand-wash your underwear. I stand ready to direct those operations from afar.

In addition, in this post I’m going to stream some of those things I missed, plus one new discovery at the end.

WOLFHEART

Tuomas Saukkonen is one of those rare metal artists who just doesn’t seem to make a misstep. After closing down a multitude of other projects (including Before the Dawn and Black Sun Aeon), he turned right around and released a great album in 2013 (Winterborn) under the name Wolfheart. He has completed work on a second Wolfheart album entitled Shadow World that will be released by Spinefarm on August 21. After the jump, check out the music video for a new song named “Aeon of Cold”. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: AMORPHIS, ÆTHER REALM, KRISIUN

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  4 Responses »
Jun 162015
 

 

Still in Texas, still working my ass off (but not on NCS), still not able to listen to much metal — but I did have time for a quick swim through the effluent of the interhole, and these things caught my eye (and ears).

AMORPHIS

Thanks to my NCS comrade Andy Synn, I saw the striking cover art above, by Valnoir Mortasonge, which Finland’s Amorphis posted on their Facebook wall, along with this announcement: Continue reading »

DE-TOURISM: HYPOCRISY AND ABORTED DROP OFF NORTH AMERICAN TOUR

 Metal News  3 Responses »
Apr 262013
 

May 14 was a day I was really looking forward to. That was the day that the “End of Disclosure” North American Tour featuring Hypocrisy, Krisiun, Aborted,  and Arsis was supposed to roll into Seattle and flatten it like a pancake. That line-up was so damned fine it was almost too good to be true. Turns out it was too good to be true. I received this press release from Nuclear Blast about half an hour ago:

Swedish death metal legends HYPOCRISY, have been forced to sit out their upcoming North American tour this May due to reasons beyond their control. The band members had received their visa approvals and everything was going as scheduled, until the embassy let them know that the earliest they could pick up their visas, get them stamped and so on, wasn’t until late June at the earliest. A regular procedure that would normally take just a few days to sort, takes much longer at the moment due to that current workload Homeland Security is experiencing.

“As we were getting ready to go get our visas stamped and ready for the tour we were informed that the earliest we could go initially was sometime in July,” explains guitarist/vocalist Peter Tägtgren. “We then immediately continued to call them, got the label to help with some letters, and put our lawyer to work etc. The best that got us was an appointment in late June. This is a HUGE blow to us, to our fans and everyone who has supported HYPOCRISY in North America. Sometimes there are battles you can’t win, and this is one of them. We will be back, I can promise that!”

Continue reading »

TOURISM: “END OF DISCLOSURE” TOUR ANNOUNCED — WITH HYPOCRISY, ABORTED, ARSIS, STARKILL, AND AUTUMN’S END

 Metal News  7 Responses »
Feb 272013
 

The last 24 hours have turned out to be full of tour announcements. I collected details about three new ones that appealed to me in an earlier post today, and I just saw another one that elevated my pulse rate.

This North American jaunt is headlined by Sweden’s Hypocrisy in support of their forthcoming album End of Disclosure (which we’ve written about before). That’s sweet news, but it gets a whole lot sweeter when you take a look at the other bands alongside them: Krisiun, Aborted, and Arsis! 

In addition, Starkill (who I’ve featured before at NCS) and Autumn’s End will appear on selected dates.

The schedule is after the jump.  You’ll be relieved to know that the tour is coming to Seattle and that I’ll be able to see it. I know that wil brighten your day. Continue reading »

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